Picture Perfect
by HesMines
Summary: It's been four months since they got together and Tony wants to go public with their relationship. Appearing at a benefit as a couple...it's not very 'them' is it? Casually announcing it to the world on the otherhand... Post-IM2. Shameless fluff


**Just a little something that popped into my head at work and was written on my lunch break. Shameless Pepperony. Post Ironman 2 – Tony wants to go public on his relationship with Pepper. (Although, really, she should be glad they managed to last four months under the radar)**

**Disclaimer – I don't own Ironman. I do, however, own Ironman (and countless other Robert Downey Jr) dvds...but that doesn't count.**

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Sitting on the couch in his workshop, Tony thought back on his previous conversation with Pepper as he flicked through the photos on his cell phone. He wanted to go public with their relationship, she still had reservations. Not about him, but about the reaction. She wasn't used to being in the spotlight.

She didn't know how to deal with going from the girl in the background of the photos to the focus of them. She was about to become one half of the biggest celebrity couple to hit the scene it years. And then there were the obvious calls that would come from people who said she only got her position because she was sleeping with him. I didn't matter that she had held the company together while he was on the fast-track to disaster, or that she'd bullied him into taking back his role as CEO while she took the role of COO. In the four months since, everyone agreed that they were one hell of a team. Stark Industries was on the up, their relationship was on the up...and he also happened to know of the 'secret' a betting pool amongst the Board of Directors pertaining to when they'd actually 'get over themselves and get together'. Jones would win the bet as he was adamant they were _already_ together.

When he'd told her that, she'd chastised him for hacking the Board's private emails. She seemed to miss the point that _everyone_ was waiting for them to get together. And since they were already together did it really make that much of a difference? Sure she was scared – hell, so was he. He'd never had a committed relationship in his _life_, and he really didn't want to screw this up.

She liked having him all to herself. And agreed with that sentiment wholeheartedly. But he also knew they couldn't hide forever. If the press caught them, all hell would break loose and it would take longer to blow over than if they ousted themselves. She knew that, she just didn't want to admit it. She supposed the perfect time to go public was at that art gallery opening next week, but it seemed a little...dull. It wasn't very them.

As he tried to figure out a more 'them' way that Pepper would approve of, the photo that was currently on the screen caught his attention. A few days before Rhodey had wanted to play with his new underwater camera, so Tony had volunteered himself, Pepper and his pool for the job. Except he didn't tell Pepper.

For the first pictures – like the one he was currently grinning like a fool in love at – Rhodey had hid under the water out of Pepper's sight. He didn't even tell her Rhodey was there. He'd planned to tell her when she joined him out by the pool, and then they'd jump in and pull faces or something like that. But then she'd padded out in that tiny white sundress, which she was really only wearing to cover her bikini, and his train of thought shuddered to a stop. Before he realised where he was, he'd closed the distance between them and covered her lips with his own before a new plan had fully formed in his mind. She responded to his kiss with more passion than he'd expected – but then she didn't know Rhodey was underwater three feet away.

As he lifted Pepper, locking her legs around his waist, a new idea suddenly hit him. Rhodey was under there with a scuba tank so that he could get the best shots without constantly coming up for air. He'd need to time it perfectly...

When Pepper pulled back for some much needed air, he put his plan into action. Tony subtly glanced over her shoulder, judging how many steps it would take him to reach the edge of the pool. He calculated that it would take a step and a leap to deposit them in the pool a photogenic distance from Rhodey – they must have moved while they'd been kissing.

Taking the first step as he pulled her lips back to his, he tried not to laugh at her squeak as they hit the water. It would be detrimental to the photo. Instead, he used his hand on her back to keep her steady and the other in her hair to keep mouth attached to his. Mainly so that she wouldn't drown, but he couldn't deny that the sensation of kissing her underwater wasn't...different. It was almost intoxicating. And he really wanted to do it again.

He didn't worry too much about how her hands left his hair when she realised that he was going to jump in the pool. She was used to his impulsiveness, so holding her breath and waiting to surface were a given. Throwing her arms out to steady herself and slow the decent were natural reactions and, if this way playing out the way he hoped it was, that would look great on camera.

As soon as he felt his feet hit the tiled floor, he pushed off gently and propelled them towards the surface. He guessed they'd been under, what, maybe fifteen seconds. Plenty of time for Rhodey to snap a decent picture. As they broke the surface, the first thing Tony did was offer Pepper a wolfish grin. He wasn't surprised when she laughed as she shook her wet hair out of her face, or how she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his lips back to hers. He was, however, surprised when she pulled away and whispered 'let's do it again' before pulling him back under the water.

Needless to say, it was a few minutes before she realised Rhodey was watching them.

Tony had been right, the whole thing had looked great on film, and Rhodey had ended up with around thirty pictures from both their underwater make-out sessions. The one he'd loaded to his phone was one of his favourites. They were almost horizontal, so it must of have been taken just before his feet had hit the bottom. Pepper's leg closest to the camera was hooked around his calf, while the other remained firmly around his waist and her hair had fanned out around her. It didn't completely obscure her face, and you could almost see how it glinted in the sunlight. While he was only clad in his jeans – and they clung to him in the most flattering way – from the angle at which his chest was pressed into Pepper's middle, you couldn't see his arc reactor. It was almost impossible to tell the difference between the natural sunlight filtering through the water and the soft glow of the reactor...and he only saw it because he was looking for it.

All in all, the picture was perfect. They looked like any other couple messing around in the pool on a hot day. In that moment, they weren't Ironman and the head of Stark Industries. They were just Tony and Pepper...

...and that was it.

Jumping up from the couch, Tony headed towards the kitchen where he knew Pepper would be working. In the last few weeks she'd taken to sitting at the island to work when he wasn't in the room, he thinks it's so the fruit bowl is in easy reach.

"What about this?" He held the phone out to her when he found her sitting at the island like he expected, with an apple in one hand and her blackberry in another. She put down her phone carefully, tilting her head to one side as her curiosity began to rear its head. "How about instead of just turning up at the opening as a couple and kissing on the red carpet, I pull a typical me-move and casually announce it to the world like it's no big deal. I could stick that photo on Facebook and Twitter and everyone would think it was just me being me instead of a planned announcement."

Public Relations had insisted that both he got an 'official' Facebook and Twitter account months before Afghanistan. Twitter, he never really saw the point of, so he left that one for Pepper to update. Facebook, however, he took to like a duck to water. He updated several times a day – everything from song lyrics and photographs to nonsensical musings and updates on where he was. And sometimes there was official Stark Industries news. Sometimes. People would just take him uploading a photo of his girlfriend as him forgetting that they were supposed to be a secret.

Pepper was silent for a moment as she digested his words, and the slight smile playing around her lips told him that she wasn't ruling his suggestion out completely. Then, out of nowhere, a slightly manic grin (that he's sure she picked up from him) appeared on Pepper's face. Leaning forward to brush her lips against his, she whispered, "Why not have a little fun with them first?"

Pulling back just a fraction so he could see her eyes, he raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Like what?" He loved the devious side to Pepper. Most people thought she was all sweetness and light with the patience of a saint to put up with him. In reality, she was just as stubborn and twice as sly as he was. He might have been the big boss with his name on the building, but she was the one cracking the whip on him. He knew he was manipulative, but Pepper's mind games were on an entirely different level.

"Well," she smiled as she pushed away from the island and grabbed Tony's hand as she passed him. She walked towards the stairs leading upstairs, pausing at the bottom to kick her heels off. Grabbing the phone from his hand, she stepped back and snapped a picture of her black stilettos – he referred to them as death traps – lying at the bottom of the stairs. Handing him back the phone before she swooped down to grab her shoes, she laughed, "I'm sure you can think of a caption for that. 'If I didn't know any better, I'd swear my girlfriend was trying to kill me' has a nice ring to it."

Starting to get her point, Tony grinned as another idea popped into his head. Grabbing her by the hand he almost ran towards his destination, dragging the giggling redhead behind him. Spinning around to face her, he pulled her in for another kiss as he used his foot to kick open the door to the master bedroom. Pepper had begun leaving her stuff at his almost immediately – she already had a small stock of stuff in the guest room, but gradually more and more of her apartment had moved into his place. While she hadn't officially moved in, it was an indication that they were heading that way, and that thought was enough to make Tony put a little more into the kiss than he had initially intended.

When air became a necessity, he pulled back only far enough to rest his forehead against hers. "I love you," he emphasised his point by dropping a kiss on her nose before his hands found hers again and he continued with his previous task.

Pulling her over to his walk-in closet (read: doorway to the room next door which used to be a bedroom) he threw the doors open and made a beeline for one of the spaces he'd cleared for her to put her stuff. His closet was organised by purpose (another improvement Pepper made when entering his life) so the areas which had seen most of a Pepper intake were work wear and everyday wear. Since her suits hanging next to his would probably give the game away, he chose to picture the other.

Handing the phone back to Pepper, he quipped, "How does 'I don't think I have the legs for that skirt' sound?"

Before Pepper could reply, another idea struck Tony. Smiling at his own brilliance, he ducked down and surprised Pepper with a sweeter, softer kiss than the earlier ones.

"Come on," he intertwined his fingers with hers and nodded his head towards another door leading off the closet. "I have another idea."

There was no urgency in the way he towed her towards the en suite. Once inside, he positioned Pepper so that she was facing the mirrored cabinet next to the sink. Coming to stand behind her, he reached over her shoulder to open the door. There, in the holder on the bottom shelf, were their toothbrushes. His was bright red, hers was a vibrant shade of purple. They both leant off to the left, as if being separated even those few inches was unacceptable.

Winding his arms around her waist, Tony rested his chin on her shoulder as he said, "How about 'this commitment thing actually is all it's cracked up to be'?"

In reply, Pepper merely leant back into his embrace and raised the camera to snap the photo.

.

The last photo went viral within minutes.

Their original plan had been to post the picture around 5pm. It was right between two of the peak times for posting, so by the time everyone was logging on at 8pm came the news would have grown arms and legs. Then Tony would change his profile picture at the same time the next day. And most importantly, there would be no Twitter or Facebook activity in the meantime. Neither one of them would answer any phone calls or emails until Monday at 9am...but that didn't mean they couldn't invite Rhodey over to have a laugh at some of the messages being left.

However, when they saw the media circus that was outside his front gate – Rhodey and Happy were nearly mauled trying to get through it – they couldn't resist drawing it out a little longer. So instead of changing his profile picture at 5pm on the Saturday, he updated his status at 8am.

**Tony Stark:** There's this sea of people right outside my house. Was there some sort of mass pilgrimage last night that I was unaware of? **James Rhodes **ended up staying the night because he couldn't get through the front gates. Major mood-killer that. (Sorry buddy, but it's true.)

He appeared to ignore every comment on his wall or on the photo. He liked the odd comment to show that he was still there, but quite obviously wasn't giving anything away. Meanwhile, people were working their way back through his history, trying to see if he had let anything else slip. He hadn't. Simultaneously, the same people seemed to realise that Pepper had been unusually quiet and moved to her page to investigate. Consequentially, she ended updating around lunch.

**Pepper Potts:** Loving some of these theories that are popping up in my NewsFeed. I can confirm that **Tony** does not have an evil twin/clone/long-lost brother, nor are they engaged in any nefarious activities. 1) He'd be the evil one. 2) I'd have killed one of them years ago. However, I might have to check out that theory on whether or not he downloads his memories. It would explain so much!

They didn't confirm or deny anything. They merely fuelled the fire. PR would have their heads...if they could actually get through. Rhodey thought the whole plan was genius, and joined in by giving a running commentary of the chaos. He too ignored all attempts to make him spill the beans, instead copying some of the more extreme theories and posting them to his wall while delivering his judgement. Everyone knew he was still cooped up in the mansion with Tony and the mysterious girlfriend, and it was 'downright infuriating' that he refused to give them anything.

When that comment was passed by a broadcaster on a local news channel, Rhodey cranked it up a notch.

Sunday was generally the quietist day for Facebookers, but with Tony's bombshell they were sure there would be extra attention on any and all posts. And there was. According to JARVIS, Tony's profile had seen a 689% increase in individual visitors. The number of hits on his page had too many zeros to bother counting.

It wasn't until around three that they decided to _finally_ put everyone out of their misery. Simultaneously, they updated their profile pictures. He stuck with the picture of the underwater kiss. She chose another of the pictures from the day of Rhodey's experimentation with the underwater camera – this one, however, was taken on dry land. It was a close-up of them while they lay on one of the sun loungers to dry off. Her head was resting on his shoulder and her hand lay over his arc reactor. With a little editing from JARVIS, what could be seen of the reactor disappeared into nothingness.

There was a full ten seconds of internet silence following the change. By the looks of it, they had stunned over a million people into complete and utter shock. That had to be some kind of record. And then all hell broke loose.

**Tony Stark:** Four months yesterday the girl of my dreams finally said yes. It only took ten years – _with Pepper Potts._

...Within three minutes 'Pepperony' was trending on twitter.

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